Links/Advertising/Self Promoters

Note: This isn't directed at any party in particular. If it wasn't a general issue, we would just ban a few people and go eat cheetos

This is a subject which has always been a bit of an issue, but was largely ignored because it happened relatively infrequently - staff from other sites using TL as a marketing tool for their own content. It's a bit of a grey area, because one could argue that it is contributing to the community as a whole, and that everyone should experience the content. There are some limits though.

If i have a party and invite all my friends, and there's a guy who gets along with everyone, shares some drinks and jokes and then says "hey we should do X tomorrow" that is great - everyone loves that - i love that. I'll put that stuff on the front page. If the same guy bursts into your party and screams "HEY GUYS, AMAZZZZING PARTY AT MY PLACE YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT!!!" every time he shows up, then i would probably punch that guy straight in the face. It's distasteful, and disrespectful.

Here's an example. JP from MLG is a new member to Teamliquid, and has been using the forums to let people know about the KOTH series and i assume in the future other tournaments. However, i regularly see him interacting on the forum and even in IRC. He polls community members for who should be in next weeks series and genuinely shows an interest in the community. This is good. If someone is "known" and we have the gut feeling that he's doing a good thing, then we will support it. If we feel that there's someone with 50 posts, and 30 of those posts are OPs to advertise/link his own content on another site, then we get our panties in a twist. Should we leave it open? Should we ban the guy? The answer isn't important. What is important is that we think its an issue and it feels like our system is being abused. TL hates abuse.

Be cool. Post. If you are new, tread lightly. Contribute to OUR community before you expect us to support yours. Don't make us think that you are using our site as a marketing tool and we wont have any problems.

Good ways to make us think you are a giant tool bag- Make your user name your product/website name.- Include a big ol' obnoxious link in your quote.- Make a blog with a link to your offsite blog.

On March 26 2010 12:00 Louder wrote:What if I blog on a specific site, and want to post a teaser in my TL blog, with a link to the offsite blog? Is that ok?

If you are a contributing member of TL then no problems. For example, if EG guys want to put a brief quote and then link to their EG blog, we are fine with that. Our problem is when we see who we've never heard of with 50 posts and 30 of them are synopsis + link threads. Artosis is a lazy prick and makes threads that say "yo click this link". We don't really care though because he's obviously earned that. We aren't hammering down on people linking etc, we just want it to be classy. You do a lot of streaming, people love it - if you link your blog too then we don't care.

On March 26 2010 12:00 Louder wrote:What if I blog on a specific site, and want to post a teaser in my TL blog, with a link to the offsite blog? Is that ok?

If you are a contributing member of TL then no problems. For example, if EG guys want to put a brief quote and then link to their EG blog, we are fine with that. Our problem is when we see guys who we've never heard of with 50 posts and 30 of them are synopsis + link threads. Artosis is a lazy prick and makes threads that say "yo click this link". We don't really care though because he's obviously earned that. We aren't hammering down on people linking etc, we just want it to be classy. You do a lot of streaming, people love it - if you link your blog too then we don't care.

This is really just standard forum procedure (or at least, it should be), but it's amazing how much it gets overlooked. I've done it myself once or twice in the past and learned my lesson.

The ironic thing is - it's always the best communities; the ones you really want to 'market your stuff' to, that are the strictest about this. This shouldn't come as any surprise though, as that is one of the very fundamental reasons why they are the best in the first place - they promote/encourage/demand high quality forum posts and loyal members.

I'm glad (as always) to see this being mentioned and moderated, as it really does lead to a better and more focused community.

On March 26 2010 11:49 Kennigit wrote:If i have a party and invite all my friends, and theres a guy who gets along with everyone, shares some drinks and jokes and then says "hey we should do X tomorrow" that is great - everyone loves that - i love that. I'll put that stuff on the front page. If the same guy bursts into your party and screams "HEY GUYS, AMAZZZZING PARTY AT MY PLACE YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT!!!" every time he shows up, then i would probably punch that guy straight in the face. It's distasteful, and disrespectful.

I have to quote the analogy. It's good.

"If you try responding to those absurd posts every day, you become more damaged. So I pay no attention to them at all." Jung Myung Hoon (aka Fantasy), as translated by Kimoleon

I don't do anything really that would require promotion... but if I ever do I'll keep this in mind. It does get annoying though... I've noticed it in a few places especially blogs and "what i do with my life" type threads.